Birth Center

Sonoma County Birth Center

Inside Thrive Birth Center

Our center, situated in a quiet corner of Sonoma County, is a warm and inviting space where you can come to receive holistic midwifery care whether you’re planning a water birth in your home, at the center, or birthing in the hospital. Our birth center is staffed by Licensed Midwives who specialize in honoring the woman’s body and inherent birth knowledge, quality care, and the experience of the whole family. In addition to midwives, we have a dynamic team of holistic practitioners and educators in the region who staff our wellness and education center so that you can receive quality classes, body work, and nutritional support. We offer luxurious birth suites with deep water birth tubs, large enough to accommodate two adults, and we are one of the only facilities in Sonoma County specializing in water birth. If you’ve already had a child, know that they are always welcome at the center, whether it’s during a prenatal visit in one of our family exam rooms or in your birth suite while you labor. After your birth, we have lactation consultants and midwives ready to provide you and your baby attentive postpartum care in your home, the way it should be, so that you can heal and focus on bonding with your new baby.

Eco-friendly Birth Center

Our center is not only a nurturing place; it’s a nurtured space. We are a green business that focuses on healthy sustainable practices. We used earth-friendly materials to build the center, including low/no VOC paints, bamboo flooring, and mud walls. Our linens are organic when possible, and are sterilized with heat, not toxic chemicals. We use eco-friendly and non-toxic cleaning products, which are both safe and effective at eliminating bacteria and viruses from our center. We use aloe vera gel instead of blue doppler gel, we use organic nitrile gloves, and washable/reusable under pads. Local small businesses and artisans make many of the products found in our Mama Marketplace. We also recycle and use electronic health records to save trees.

What does it mean to Birth Local?

When you choose to have your baby at Thrive, whether you are choosing to birth at home or within our center, your money generates the local economy. We are an independent free standing birth center, not a part of a larger corporation with headquarters outside of Sonoma County. The money that you invest into your birth experience is filtered back into the region through our midwives, our educators and our practitioners. In this matter, your choice in where you birth your family feeds all sectors of the local economy and is truly an investment into your families community. One of the ways we can promote our region is by being proud members of the GoLocal cooperative of Sonoma County. We are active participants in cooperative because we believe in the “network of locally owned businesses, residents, non-profit organizations and government agencies working together to build a resilient, thriving, locally economy.” Join us, birth local, and love our region!

Tessa’s therapeutic nutrition practice is an incredible asset to our community. I’ve attended two of her classes, and I absolutely love learning from her! She is very experienced and extremely knowledgable. Her passion for health and helping others holistically, really shines in the foods she prepares, as well as the positive and relaxed environment she creates. The vibrant spread of food was unparalleled, pure & medicinal deliciousness! She introduced me to many new and exciting recipes t…

I feel in some ways like they helped me hang the moon. I know they say that my experience is the norm as far as they’re concerned, but it’s really not the norm in our society, so I feel very lucky to have had such fantastic birth experiences. I recommend them to anyone looking for a midwife!

The ladies…were all stars throughout the whole pregnancy and birth. They answered all of my silly questions, even the ones I could have looked up in their all inclusive manual myself, at all times of the day (though I did try not to call at unreasonable times). They were warm and encouraging, and flexible (coming to me when it was more convenient for my husband and I who were also trying to fix up and move into a new house the last trimester!) I loved my checkup visits, seems weird to say/write …

To the dad’s out there: take this class with your wife/significant other! Kelly spent a lot of time explaining the role dad plays in the process. I was nervous/unsure about what, if any role I would have but Kelly really reinforces the idea that delivery is a family event and helped us understand all the emotional and physical support mom needs throughout the process and how dad can best provide that support. Mom is definitely the star of the show, but dad is an important role-player and i…

Hands down the best and only option for me. The Midwives are now part of my new family. They were there for the most important, transformative experience of my life and they’ll be there when baby two comes into this world. Love, love, love them.

I was all set to deliver at Kaiser, which my insurance from work fully covered, but as my pregnancy progressed, something important was missing from their care and I found myself pressured by and arguing with them when they didn’t respect my carefully researched decisions. I found myself dreading and afraid of the hospital birth. The Thrive Birth Center practices a totally different model of care, where they support mamas emotionally as well as physically, they respect mama’s choices without jud…

I am an overworked individual who doesn’t have time to shop for healthy food, much less cook it at the end of a long day. When I met Tessa, it was such a blessing to have her work with me on my food situation. On top of being overworked, I needed to lose a few pounds. We worked out a plan that flowed so perfectly. Weekly, she would drop off the most gorgeous and healthy food that would last me all week. I even had enough to share!
She since has started creating incredible food for our mont…

I cannot say enough wonderful things about my experience giving birth at Thrive with Caitlin and her team. This was my second child and I was excited to have a non-hospital birth, and I felt comfortable the whole way through in Caitlin’s hands. She has such a gentle confidence and nurturing spirit, and really showed her innate talent as a midwife on our delivery day — a supportive presence to support my own ability, but at the same time came in with some of her midwifery skills when I need…

We recently took the 2 day holistic birthing class at Thrive. It was a fantastic class. There was great information presented in a relaxed environment. There were important discussions for both families birthing at the center and families going the hospital route. My husband and I felt more connected after the relaxation exercises and feel the class helped us mentally prepare the upcoming birth of our daughter.